EdoEdo (江戸, "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo,
Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.[2] It was the seat of
power for the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled
JapanJapan from 1603 to 1868.
During this period, it grew to become one of the largest cities in the
world and home to an urban culture centered on the notion of a
"floating world".[1]

History[edit]
Main article:
EdoEdo period
From the establishment of the Tokugawa bakufu headquarters at Edo, the
town became the de facto capital and center of political power,
although
KyotoKyoto remained the formal capital of the country.
EdoEdo grew
from what had been a small, little-known fishing village in 1457 into
the largest metropolis in the world with an estimated population of
1,000,000 by 1721.[1][3]
EdoEdo was repeatedly devastated by fires, with the Great Fire of Meireki
in 1657 being the most disastrous. An estimated 100,000 people died in
the fire. During the
EdoEdo period, there were about 100 fires mostly
begun by accident and often quickly escalating and spreading through
neighborhoods of wooden machiya which were heated with charcoal fires.
Between 1600 and 1945, Edo/
TokyoTokyo was leveled every 25–50 years or so
by fire, earthquakes, or war.

In 1868, when the shogunate came to an end, the city was renamed Tokyo
("eastern capital"). The emperor moved his residence to Tokyo, making
the city the formal capital of Japan:

KeiōKeiō 4: On the 17th day of the 7th month (September 3, 1868),
EdoEdo was
renamed Tokyo.[4]
KeiōKeiō 4: On the 27th day of the 8th month (October 12, 1868), Emperor
Meiji was crowned in the Shishin-den in Kyoto.[5]
KeiōKeiō 4: On the eighth day of the ninth month (October 23, 1868), the
nengō was formally changed from
KeiōKeiō to Meiji and a general amnesty
was granted.[5]
Meiji 2: On the 23rd day of the 10th month (1868), the emperor went to
TokyoTokyo and
EdoEdo castle became an imperial palace.[5]

Magistrate[edit]

Scroll depicting the Great Fire of Meireki

Ishimaru Sadatsuga was the magistrate of
EdoEdo in 1661.[6]
Government and administration[edit]
During the
EdoEdo period,
Roju were senior officials that looked over the
entire
ShogunateShogunate government.
Machi-bugyō (City Commissioners) were in
charge of protecting the citizens and merchants of Edo, and
Kanjō-bugyō (finance commissioners) were responsible for the
financial matters of the Shogunate. [7]
Geography[edit]

The city was laid out as a castle town around
EdoEdo Castle. The area
surrounding the castle known as Yamanote consisted largely of daimyō
mansions, whose families lived in
EdoEdo as part of the sankin kōtai
system; the daimyō made journeys in alternating years to Edo, and
used the mansions for their entourages. It was this extensive samurai
class which defined the character of Edo, particularly in contrast to
the two major cities of
KyotoKyoto and
OsakaOsaka neither of which were ruled by
a daimyō or had a significant samurai population. Kyoto's character
was defined by the Imperial Court, the court nobles, its Buddhist
temples and its history;
OsakaOsaka was the country's commercial center,
dominated by the chōnin or the merchant class.
Areas further from the center were the domain of the chōnin (町人,
"townsfolk"). The area known as
ShitamachiShitamachi (下町, "lower town" or
"downtown"), northeast of the castle, was a center of urban culture.
The ancient Buddhist temple of
Sensō-jiSensō-ji still stands in Asakusa,
marking the center of an area of traditional
ShitamachiShitamachi culture. Some
shops in the streets near the temple have existed continuously in the
same location since the
EdoEdo period.
The Sumida River, then called the Great River (大川, Ōkawa), ran
along the eastern edge of the city. The shogunate's official
rice-storage warehouses,[8] other official buildings and some of the
city's best-known restaurants were located here.

The "
JapanJapan Bridge" (日本橋, Nihon-bashi) marked the center of the
city's commercial center, an area also known as Kuramae (蔵前, "in
front of the storehouses"). Fishermen, craftsmen and other producers
and retailers operated here. Shippers managed ships known as tarubune
to and from
OsakaOsaka and other cities, bringing goods into the city or
transferring them from sea routes to river barges or land routes such
as the Tōkaidō. This area remains the center of Tokyo's financial
and business district.
The northeastern corner of the city was considered a dangerous
direction in traditional onmyōdō (cosmology), and is protected from
evil by a number of temples including
Sensō-jiSensō-ji and Kan'ei-ji. Beyond
this were the districts of the eta or outcasts, who performed
"unclean" work and were separated from the main parts of the city. A
long dirt path, which was a short distance north of the eta districts,
extended west from the riverbank leading along the northern edge of
the city to the
YoshiwaraYoshiwara pleasure districts. Previously located
within the city proper near Asakusa, the districts were rebuilt in
this more-remote location after the
Great Fire of MeirekiGreat Fire of Meireki in 1657.
Gallery[edit]

Edo, 1865 or 1866.
PhotochromPhotochrom print. Five albumen prints joined to
form a panorama. Photographer: Felice Beato

^ a b c Sansom, George. A History of Japan: 1615–1867, p. 114.
^ US Department of State. (1906). A digest of international law as
embodied in diplomatic discussions, treaties and other international
agreements (John Bassett Moore, ed.), Vol. 5, p. 759; excerpt, "The
Mikado, on assuming the exercise of power at Yedo, changed the name of
the city to Tokio".
^ Gordon, Andrew. (2003). A Modern History of
JapanJapan from Tokugawa
Times to the Present, p. 23.
^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1956). Kyoto: the Old Capital, 794–1869,
p. 327.
^ a b c Ponsonby-Fane, p. 328.
^ Encyclopædia Britannica (1911): "Japan: Commerce in Tokugawa
Times," p. 201.
^ Deal, William E. (2007). Handbook to life in medieval and early
modern Japan. New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0195331265.
^ Taxes, and samurai stipends, were paid not in coin, but in rice. See
koku.